Koyama Munetsugu
固山宗次 (Koyama Munetsugu)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Line of Edo swordsmiths founded by Koyama Munetsugu, born in Shirakawa (Mutsu) in 1803 and active from the 1830s into the early Meiji years.
Profile
Koyama Munetsugu (固山宗次) was born in 1803 in Shirakawa, Mutsu province; his elder brother Munehira was also a swordsmith. He sought out Katō Tsunahide, but as Tsunahide had withdrawn from work, he trained instead under his younger brother, Chōunsai Tsunatoshi. Early in the Tenpō era he moved to Edo, and between 1831 and 1834 his signatures record that the blades were made there. In 1845 he received the title Bizen no Suke (備前介), after which he signed Bizen no Suke Fujiwara Munetsugu. He is associated with the Matsudaira of the Kuwana domain, although some research sees the Koyama family as town smiths rather than retainers. He worked in both the Bizen and Mino traditions: early blades show a lively chōji midare, later ones a calmer gunome midare, and his tempering is noted for a clean edge free of coarse nie. Tairyūsai Sōkan was among his pupils; he sent work to the 1873 Vienna Exposition, and his son Sōichirō succeeded to the name as the second generation.
Swords available
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Munetsugu
Shinshintō katana by Koyama Munetsugu, signed Bizen no Suke Fujiwara Munetsugu and dated to the first month of Kaei 2 (1849), with NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon certificate and a chrysanthemum-themed koshirae. Katana by Koyama Munetsugu, one of the leading swordsmiths of the late Edo period. According to the original seller, he was born in Shirakawa (Mutsu Province), the third son of Koyama Munehira, served the Matsudaira family of Shirakawa and in 1845 received the honorary title Bizen no Suke. The blade has a nagasa of 71.2 cm and a sori of 1.67 cm, with a slender form and a long kissaki; the jigane is mokume with ō-itame and pronounced chikei, which the seller compares to Norishige and considers unusual in this smith's work, and the hamon is a ko-gunome midare in ko-nie with ko-ashi, yō and kinsuji. The seller ranks it as jōjō-saku within Munetsugu's output and states that it shows no forging flaws. The nakago is ubu, with one mekugi-ana, signed Bizen no Suke Fujiwara Munetsugu and dated to the first month of Kaei 2 (1849), as the photographs show. It has a gilt habaki. The koshirae, described but not dated by the seller, has an iron tsuba with chrysanthemums, a shakudō nanako fuchi-kashira with chrysanthemums and menuki of the same motif; the photographs show a textured dark green lacquered saya and a green-wrapped tsuka. The seller also mentions a shirasaya that does not appear in the photographs. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken certificate, legible in the photograph of the origami.
66.1/100
€20,970
